Way back in April, I wrote a blog post detailing a 'vision' I had for decorating one large wall in our home. I wanted to use maps, books, postcards, and other small pieces of artwork to tell the visual and geographic story of my and my husband's families, from their origins in Europe all the way up to the places where I and my husband grew up. It took several months, but my vision is more or less complete, and I'm so happy with the results that I wanted to share it with everyone, in the hopes that you may be inspired to do something similar in your home.

As I mentioned in my April post, I started buying maps and postcards off of websites like as eBay and Etsy. I also found a couple of books and small pieces of artwork that help to tell our family's story. (Tip: Don't limit yourself to U.S. sellers only; I found many unique postcards and maps through international sellers.) Once I felt that I had a good representation of the various branches of our family tree, I looked into ways in which I could frame these items. I visited a local custom framing shop in town. Let's just say that their prices were WAY out of my budget. My heart sank; I thought my project was over. I started looking around online and found an Ohio-based company called American Frame. Their easy-to-use website takes you step-by-step through the process of measuring and ordering custom mats and frames. Oh, and did I mention that their frames and mats were affordable? My project was back on track!

Here are some of the custom frames I ordered from American Frame. The photos do not do them justice, and there is some glare from the camera and nearby window. When choosing frames for each individual piece, I decided to go with a frame/mat that matched that ONE piece of artwork. In other words, I didn't try to "match" frames with each other, which the 'designer' at the custom framing shop was pushing me to do. I love the variety that resulted, and, as you'll see later, I think it gives the display as a whole a lot of personality. (Click on image for larger view.)

German map of the Balkan states in brown wood carved frame.

19th c. map of Polish Galicia in silver wood frame with blue mat.

Map of Italy in blue wood frame.

Map of Alsace-Lorraine in black carved wood frame and red mat.

Map of NYC harbor in a smooth charcoal black wood frame.

Map of immigrant ship routes in green wood frame.

Not all of my frames were custom-ordered at American Frame; I bought a lot of the postcard frames at Wal-mart. I used self-adhesive photo corners to mount the postcards on scrapbook paper.

Two vintage Cleveland postcards in 8x10 Wal-Mart frame.

Postcard of husband's home church in 5x7 Wal-Mart frame.

I knew that I wanted to display the framed maps and artwork on ledges, instead of hanging each frame individually. I wanted 4-6 larger shelves which I would arrange in two rows. The ledges HAD to have a forward 'lip' on them so that I could rest the frames on the shelf and not worry about them sliding off. I started looking around in some of the major home decorating chain stores and again I found that these shelves could possibly break my budget. And again, I took to the Internet and found a website called Exposures. The have a great selection of wooden and metal shelves and ledges in popular colors/finishes, and, if you sign up for their email list, they send you lots of coupons. Because I didn't want the shelves to be the focal point of the display, I purchased them in the white finish, which would blend in with our neutral walls and white molding. In hindsight, I probably should have purchased their 'extra-deep' shelves, because that would have given me a little more room on which to rest the frames - luckily, I didn't order any frames that were too deep, so the normal depth shelves ended up working fine for me.

Here is a photo of the entire display. Many thanks to my husband for hanging the shelves. I did not originally intend for the old sewing machine to become part of the display, but it works, especially since two of my great-grandmothers were pretty good seamstresses. I actually think it would be cool to add a few smaller items to represent some of the occupations of some of our ancestors - maybe a plumbing pipe/valve for my grandpa, and a small blacksmith tool and toy tractor for my husband's ancestors.

View of entire family history wall.

Here are a few close-ups of some of the other items on the ledges:

Postcard of hospital, book about my hometown, and vintage letterpress 'B' representing my Grandpa Bellan, who worked in printing.

Immigration ledge with books and vintage postcard of steamship in NYC harbor.

Map of my mother-in-law's home county and authentic 1949 Ohio license plate (year of birth for my husband's parents, both born in Ohio.)

German book about Lauterecken, Germany, one of my husband's ancestral villages.

Originally, I had thought that I might like to paint the words 'Our Family's Journey' on the wall somewhere at the top of the display. Now, I'm not sure if I still want to try that, or if I will just leave it alone and let the maps speak for themselves. Either way, the whole thing makes me smile when I pass it by, and I can't wait until my kids are old enough to wonder "Why is that map there?" or "What is that book about?" And now I can show friends and family members what I've learned through my genealogy research WITHOUT pulling out a binder full of death certificates and census records, which would undoubtedly put most of them to sleep.

Feel free to ask me any questions about the process of creating a genealogy history wall. I'd be happy to talk about it!

This week is the American Library Association's Banned Books Week. One of my favorite heirlooms that belonged to my Grandma Bellan is her copy of Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which, though immensely popular upon its 1943 release, has also been, at times, banned due to themes related to alcoholism, sex, and poverty.

Grandma received this book as a gift from her niece and nephew, Linda and Dick DeRigo in 1944. (Linda was only 2 years old and Dick was a baby.) This particular copy has seen better days; the edges are worn away, the binding has become loose in some areas, and the spine is faded and dirty. It has that wonderful 'old-book-musty' smell, too. But that only means that it was well-loved, and, in this case, by more than one generation. I read this very book as a teenager (it was on my school literature reading list one particular summer), and I fell in love with it immediately. I wanted to re-read it as an adult, but I decided to purchase a new copy. I can be rough on my books, and at that point in my life, I was shoving them into the bottoms of bags to read on my train ride home from work. I didn't want to risk any more damage to a copy I loved so much.

Not only did I inherit Grandma's book, but, more importantly, I inherited her LOVE of reading and books. When she was living with us in her last year or so, she didn't like to drive too much, so during my weekly trips to the local library, I would head on over to the 'large print' section and pick up a few for her. I hope that at least one of my children will feel the same way I feel about reading and books, and I hope that they will cherish this book from their great-grandmother as much as I do.

Today's family treasure is not something I have inherited from an ancestor, nor is it something of mine with a lot of monetary value. It is my family's National Parks Passport book. For those of you unfamiliar with these books, they are published by the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). Just about every NPS-designated national park, historic site, memorial, monument, scenic river or trail, etc. has a rubber passport stamp that you can get at the visitor centers. The stamps show the name of the park, the date, and the location. My husband and I purchased our book on our honeymoon in 2004. We drove out to the Black Hills area of South Dakota and spent a week exploring the area and visiting NPS sites like the Badlands, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, and Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Since then, we've visited many other NPS locations all over the country, and we still like to plan our trips in areas where we haven't yet collected any stamps. I hope my kids and grandkids hold onto this book after I'm gone. It's a memento of a hobby both me and my husband enjoy greatly and, because each stamp is dated, it tells the story of our travels during different points of our lives.

I never really got to know my paternal grandmother; she passed away when I was only four years old. This was one of her tins. It's nothing fancy - just a painted Decoware tin with a few small rust spots and dents in it. But, other than the photos and documents I have uncovered via my genealogy research, it's the only thing of hers that I have, so it's special to me. My aunt gave it to me a couple years ago filled with a batch of my grandma's original-recipe chocolate chip and walnut cookies. That's a photo of them below. The story goes, my dad and his three siblings would squabble over whose cookies had more chocolate chips in them, so my grandmother just started putting exactly five in every cookie.

Treasure Chest Thursday is a weekly blogging prompt from Geneabloggers in which we are encouraged to write about family heirlooms. I am looking forward to using this prompt every week or so to write my about ancestors' possessions AND to catalog those items of my own that I want my kids and grandkids to preserve for future generations.This week's post is about my maternal grandmother's childhood doll.She is currently sitting in a display cabinet in my mom's house, so, when we were visiting over Christmas, I took a few photos.

Around the time my Grandma was preparing to sell her home and move in with us (mid-1990s), my Aunt Sharon took the doll to get cleaned and fixed up. The doll got a new dress and stockings, but she saved her original clothes and put them in a box (left pic below). In the box, Aunt Sharon also wrote down the doll's details (right pic below) - when Grandma got her, what she named her, and every address at which she "lived." I am so very thankful for these details; it makes this particular heirloom so much more personal than if we just had the doll itself. Grandma got the doll on her 10th birthday, which was 4 Sep 1924 and she called her either 'Doris' or 'Alice.' And, if I wanted to, I could now plot on a map every location in which Grandma lived during nearly her whole life. (For a geography nerd like me, that's pretty cool.)

Family historians and genealogists are often so consumed with learning about the lives of dead ancestors that we forget that each of us living today is an important piece of our family tree puzzle. What are we doing to make sure that our treasured objects and memories are preserved for future generations? This post is meant to encourage you to think about how you want to be remembered and to remind you to take the time to set aside the things and memories that are true representations of your life and personality.Think about physical objects you would like to leave to your descendants. In this case, I'd like you to focus on things that are exclusively yours - not other family heirlooms you have inherited from older generations. Here are a few ideas to get you thinking about what you value:- Things you had to work hard for: A university degree or dissertation, a medal from a race or other sporting event in which you participated, a volunteer or service award, a uniform or piece of equipment representing your career path, books, poems, or stories you have written (published or unpublished), your own genealogy research.- Things of sentimental value: A wedding ring, photo albums, ticket stubs, a favorite childhood toy or book, special notes or greeting cards.- Things you made: Quilts and knitting projects, pottery, artwork, hand-crafted furniture, recipes you created.- Things that reveal your personality: Your favorite music album, book, or film, a personal journal, a favorite piece of jewelry or clothing, a favorite piece of artwork.Once you decide what objects you would like to pass on, it's important that you write down what these objects are and when you received them, AND explain why they are so special to you. The grandkids are much more likely to save a couple of old concert tickets if they know that they were from grandma and grandpa’s first date. Then, make several digital AND paper copies of this list and keep them in safe, but accessible, locations. Don’t undervalue the objects, experiences, and memories of YOUR life; to future generations they will be worth more than you know.